


Shortcake Date

by Uy8hg



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Gen, Just Hyunjin and his dog having a good time, Mentioned Stray Kids Ensemble, Zine: Stray Kids Sweet Treats Zine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:28:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28139193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Uy8hg/pseuds/Uy8hg
Summary: Hyunjin needs to get out of the house, and what better way to spend the day then hanging out with your dog?
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	Shortcake Date

**Author's Note:**

> Hi there! This piece was originally for a free Stray Kids Zine, and I've just now remembered to post it here. You can search the zine title Stray Kids Sweet Treat Zine to see the other good art and stories involved!  
> Also I wrote this when I was even more of a Baby Stay than I am now, so I did my best! I hope you enjoy it even if it may be somewhat out-of-character.

It was barely a week into their break and Hyunjin was bored. Not completely bored, per se, but he was missing something. Like several other members, he’d gone home for the month they had off. He was enjoying being home, but there was something about life in the dorms he missed.

Did he miss the long dance practices? Not really. The hours of vocal practice for recording tracks? He’d do it, but it wasn’t his favorite. The members?

Yeah, that was it. He missed the members.

Hyunjin rolled over in his bed, bringing his phone up once again to check for messages. The group chat was still pinging like normal, and Jeongin had texted him a few times, but it was all just random conversations. He shot back a few replies before putting the phone down again with a sigh.

Messaging them was great and all, but he missed seeing them in person. He wanted to cling to Felix’s back. He wanted to let Changbin fall asleep on top of him. He’d considered going back to the dorm early, but he didn’t know who would actually be there and he was too scared to ask in the chat.

As he was contemplating his options for the day, Kkami chose that moment to hop onto his bed and snuggle up next to his legs.

“Hi, Kkami,” Hyunjin mumbled, trying to pull the dog closer to his arms and torso for better snuggling. Kkami seemed to immediately regret his decisions, digging his claws into the comforter. After a few moments of sheet-wrestling, Hyunjin smiled at his victory as he wrapped his arms all the way around a now mildly-squirming Kkami.

He sighed into the dog’s fur, trying to imagine the ball of fluff was one of his friends. Except the members didn’t normally try to press their wet noses against his cheek for kisses.

“What should we do today, Kkami?” The dog, to no one’s surprise, only licked his cheek. “Some help you are.”

For the first time that morning, Hyunjin stretched out his arms and pushed himself up, leaving the warmth of Kkami, who immediately shifted to steal his spot. Another glance at his phone told him it was nearly noon.

If he had been at the dorms, he would have been, begrudgingly, woken up already, had breakfast, and might have been in dance practice by now. But it was break, and he was home. Which meant he could do things he wouldn’t be allowed to do at the dorm, like cheat on his diet.

“I’m feeling like unhealthy food today,” he informed his dog, who looked up at him with big eyes. “What do you think?”

Kkami barked, standing up as if he understood what his owner was thinking about.

And Hyunjin was starting to get a sneaky idea. His mom had mentioned something about a new café opening up nearby that was pet-friendly, and it had popped up on his feed more than once. If the light trying to fight its way past his blinds was any indication, it was a nice day out.

“How does a walk sound?”

~~~~~ 

It may have taken him an hour to get ready to go out, but soon after he was standing in front of a quaint little café, Kkami’s leash in hand. Like he’d suspected, it was nice and bright outside, which was a good excuse to wear sunglasses above his face mask. His hair was luckily black, not having been changed from the latest rounds of promotion, so he felt he didn’t stand out too much.

The café seemed cute, with both interior and exterior seating. There were fairy lights strung up all around the inside, and through the window Hyunjin could see a few cases of sweets and what looked like one of ice cream.

Sure enough, there was a decal on the inside of the door proudly declaring that it was okay to bring your pets inside as long as they were leashed or cooperative. Kkami was already pawing at the door, seeing a handful of other dogs lounging around their owners inside.

A set of bells tied to the inside of the door jingled as Hyunjin pressed it open. Instantly he was met with the sweet smells of baked goods and treats. Kkami seemed to notice it too, as he gave a little yip of excitement.

“What can I help you with?” the woman behind the counter asked before Hyunjin had even taken a proper look at the menu.

“Uhhh what do you recommend?” he asked instead, trying to match names on the blackboard behind the counter to the rows of pastries in the display case. He wouldn’t say he was the sort of person to go out of his way for sweets, but he enjoyed trying new things. He certainly hadn’t come in looking for anything in particular.

The woman peeked over the counter at Kkami, who had decided she wanted to have a stare down with a corgi lying nearby, who didn’t seem to have even noticed the black-and-white dog. “First time in with your furry friend? Might I suggest a strawberry shortcake with ice cream and extra strawberries for you and your dog to share?”

“Sounds good,” Hyunjin answered, tugging on Kkami’s leash until his attention was diverted from the one-sided glaring.

Only a few moments later, Hyunjin was holding a large bowl with a small slice of shortcake buried under scoops of ice cream and more than a few strawberries. Between Kkami’s insistence at staring down any pet that wanted to look his way and the nice weather, it seemed like a shame to not sit outside and enjoy the sunshine. With only a bit of struggle, he pressed the door open with his back and was once again in the warm, fresh air.

He set the treat down on the table nearest the door and began trying the end of Kkami’s leash around one of the legs, before plopping his dog on the other chair. Kkami didn’t seem to mind, putting his front paws up on the table and sniffing the dessert.

“Not yet, not yet. Let me have some.” He pushed the eager snout aside as he scooped up a bite. The sweetness of the sliced strawberry hit him first, mellowed out by the more-tame piece of cake. The ice cream, just simple vanilla, was already melting and seeping into the biscuit. He hummed as he chewed. It wasn’t something he would normally pick, and definitely wasn’t part of his diet, but it hit the spot.

Kkami barked, trying to nudge his way toward the bowl again.

“You’re impatient today,” Hyunjin muttered through his half-finished bite. The waitress had given him a little wooden skewer to help feed Kkami, and he quickly speared one of the whole strawberries. Kkami darted forward the second Hyunjin lifted the bite up, snatching the piece of fruit and nearly the whole skewer. “You act like I don’t feed you.”

Another bark.

He sighed, looking down at the bowl of dessert. In the warm afternoon sun, it was already starting to melt. Hyunjin hummed as he prepared to take another scoop before a thought crossed his mind.

“I should take a photo before this is all gone,” he muttered under his breath as he took out his phone. After some struggling, including Hyunjin finally admitting that Kkami was too big to pick up over the table and that he would have to stand up, he managed to plop the dog in his lap and pull out his phone. Kkami didn’t seem that impressed until Hyunjin sat down again and the dog could try to get into his treat again, now from a different angle. “Hang on, hang on.”

“Smile big,” he told Kkami, who promptly started looking anywhere but the camera. In particular, he kept looking at the bowl. Hyunjin rolled his eyes, but he leaned over to try to grab the bowl with the hand also keeping Kkami in place. “This is not going to work, is it.”

The bowl wasn’t quite in frame unless he hunched down, but at least it got Kkami to look more toward the camera. He quickly snapped the pic so that he could set the bowl down, swiftly moving it to the other side of the table and out of Kkami’s reach.

The picture was not ideal, and certainly not something they could put on their socials. It was just a bit blurry, the café’s logo was all over the place, and Kkami wasn’t looking at the camera.

He was about to abandon hope when the bells jingled behind him. He turned to see the woman from the counter peeking out at him. “Would you like me to take your photo?”

Hyunjin glanced through the big windows next to him just as several other patrons looked away. Maybe his struggle with Kkami had caused a bit more commotion than he thought.

“That would be great, thanks,” he told her.

With a proper photo secured in much less time, he set Kkami back in the other chair and got back to his dessert. It was melting even more now, but he didn’t mind.

As he worked his way through his treat, alternating between taking bites himself and offering fruit to Kkami, his mind worked its way back to his thoughts from the morning. He pulled out his phone again, only to see just a few messages from the members. Most of them seemed to be finding something to do, not facing boredom like Hyunjin.

He contemplated sending the photo, just to prove that he too had found something to occupy his time. Then he glanced at the dessert again and figured that the message could wait.

“Do you think the members would like coming here, Kkami?” he contemplated aloud, glancing at his dining companion, who had curled up in the chair after his meal. The dog peaked an eye open to look at his owner before closing it again and adjusting his position. “I can’t tell if you are enjoying this or just like being outside.”

This comment earned him a yawn, which Hyunjin couldn’t tell if it was a step forward or backward.

He glanced down at his bowl, which he’d nearly emptied. The sun was warm, and all the ice cream had melted into a soup at the bottom, fully soaking any remaining pieces of cake. A few slices of strawberries were trying to decide if they should be floating or getting stuck to the bottom of the bowl. He watched as one slice, one of the last ones still afloat, slid off the cake and landed with its brethren in the ice cream soup.

“Wouldn’t it be neat to be small and able to really dive into your desert?” Hyunjin mused aloud. When he’d first gotten the dessert, it had fully taken up the space in the bowl. It had looked so perfect, like a plastic display more than real food. “You could go to sleep on the cake, or bounce around on it if it was spongy. Maybe you could climb inside a strawberry. Would ice cream make a good slide, or would it just be too cold?”

He scooped up a bite and held it up to his eyes. “Guess it wouldn’t last that long, though. It’s very melty.” He popped the spoonful into his mouth and savored the still-sweet taste. “But if it’s this sweet already, it would probably be overwhelming if you were smaller.”

He glanced over at Kkami, still lounging in the sun on the other chair. After a few tries, he managed to spear one of the remaining strawberry slices and offer it to the dog. He immediately perked up and launched himself at the treat.

“You’re already a good size for strawberries,” he told the dog, who tilted his head at Hyunjin as he chewed. “Last one, though,” he added, which earned him a little whine. Sometimes he really wondered if his dog could understand him.

“Wanna lick the bowl?”

That was something Kkami seemed to understand perfectly well, if the excited yip was anything to go by. Hyunjin once again brought his dog over to his lap. Kkami immediately shoved his head into the bowl and went to town.

At last, Hyunjin pulled out his phone and sent the picture from earlier to the group chat. He smiled as the quick, positive responses of the others popped up. Between comments about Kkami and how cute the dessert looked, there was more than one of them that said they should go together again.

Hyunjin smiled, ruffling Kkami’s head. “Seems like we made some plans with the members,” he told the dog, and got another happy bark before, once again, getting a face full of dog tongue that now had a twinge of a strawberry breath with it.


End file.
